Leadership commitment for RAI
Summary: Achieving leadership commitment to RAI within an organization requires the management team to actively invest their time and effort into building RAI practices within an organization.
Type of pattern: Governance pattern
Type of objective: Trustworthiness
Target users: Management teams
Impacted stakeholders: Employees, AI users, AI impacted subjects, AI consumers
Lifecycle stages: All stages
Relevant AI ethics principles: Human, societal and environmental wellbeing, human-centered values, fairness, privacy protection and security, reliability and safety, transparency and explainability, contestability, accountability
Context: AI has the potential to transform organizations through a wide range of applications, such as analyzing business data or optimizing hiring processes. When considering AI in an organization, the management team should consider three key factors: 1) what values can AI bring to the organization and how can it support the organization’s goals and objectives; 2) what are the costs associated with adopting AI, including financial, resource, and time investment; 3) what are the potential risks of adopting AI, and how can these risks be mitigated and managed.
Problem: How can the leadership ensure commitment to build RAI within an organization?
Solution: Leadership commitment is crucial for effective to organization-level governance of RAI. There are several ways that management teams can demonstrate their commitment to RAI within an organization.
- Establish clear founding ethics principles and governance structure for the organization [1].
- Make RAI a key part of CEO contracts and performance reviews.
- Appoint a chief RAI officer.
- Set up an organization-level RAI advisory group to provide advice to the RAI risk committee which is responsible for overseeing the AI related activities within the organization.
- Promote a culture of RAI within the organization.
- Provide training and guidelines on RAI practices to employees.
Benefits:
- Formation of a culture: Continuous leadership commitment is the foundation of a strong organizational culture that values and promotes RAI.
- Realization of vision: Strong leadership commitment to RAI can help ensure that an organization’s vision for AI is realized.
- Visible sponsorship: By visible supporting and promoting RAI, leadership commitment can build the organization’s capacity for RAI practices.
Drawbacks:
- Additional efforts: Establishing and maintaining leadership commitment to RAI can require significant time and efforts.
- Extra cost: Implementing leadership commitment may require additional financial and resource costs.
Related patterns:
- RAI risk committee: An RAI risk committee is an important component of the RAI governance structure that is established through leadership commitment.
- Code for RAI: The management team enforces the code of ethics within an organization.
Known uses:
- IBM has established an AI ethics board to support a culture of responsible AI throughout IBM.
- Axon has assembled an independent AI ethics board to provide guidance on the development of its AI products and services.
- Schneider Electric has appointed its first Chief AI Officer to advance its AI strategy.
References:
[1] Shneiderman, B., Bridging the gap between ethics and practice: Guidelines for reliable, safe, and trustworthy Human-Centered AI systems. ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent Systems (TiiS), 2020. 10(4): p. 1-31.